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MD(4) FreeBSD Kernel Interfaces Manual MD(4)
NAMEmd -- memory disk
SYNOPSISdevicemdDESCRIPTION
The md driver provides support for four kinds of memory backed virtual
disks:
malloc Backing store is allocated using malloc(9). Only one malloc-
bucket is used, which means that all md devices with malloc
backing must share the malloc-per-bucket-quota. The exact size
of this quota varies, in particular with the amount of RAM in
the system. The exact value can be determined with vmstat(8).
preload A file loaded by loader(8) with type `md_image' is used for
backing store. For backwards compatibility the type `mfs_root'
is also recognized. If the kernel is created with option
MD_ROOT the first preloaded image found will become the root
file system.
vnode A regular file is used as backing store. This allows for mount-
ing ISO images without the tedious detour over actual physical
media.
swap Backing store is allocated from swap space.
For more information, please see mdconfig(8).
SEE ALSOdisklabel(5), disklabel(8), fdisk(8), loader(8), mdconfig(8), mdmfs(8),
newfs(8), vmstat(8)HISTORY
The md driver first appeared in FreeBSD 4.0 as a cleaner replacement for
the MFS functionality previously used in PicoBSD and in the FreeBSD
installation process.
The md driver did a hostile takeover of the vn(4) driver in FreeBSD 5.0.
AUTHORS
The md driver was written by Poul-Henning Kamp <phk@FreeBSD.org>.
FreeBSD 6.0 March 9, 2001 FreeBSD 6.0